Tag: Christian

The Most Powerful Word in the World!

Jesus. There you have it. Not the “Jesus” that people utter as a modified curse word. Jesus. The heartful, soulful word you should invoke whenever you need help, want some peace in a situation, and, most importantly, just say “thanks” and keeping Jesus close.

Saying “Jesus” is not like rubbing a magic lamp. It’s not about asking Him to grant 3 wishes. It’s about having such a close relationship with Jesus that you only need to speak (or think) His name with an open heart and mind. He will do the rest.

This may sound like more religious mumbo-jumbo but its not. It’s simply about life. To me, this is not about Sundays at church, but living life day in and day out. With Jesus.

If you have never done it, try simply saying “Jesus” while your heart and mind are both open. Open heart and mind are a must. Then simply let go and say it—JESUS.

Jesus. The most powerful word in the world. It’s a shame people don’t know it and invoke it—not as a curse, but as a heartful, soulful pouring out of life. Trust me—it works.

Have a wonderful day!!!

 

Easter Everday

Easter Sunday. The day we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter Everyday. Every day we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. One is a day event. The other is an everyday event. Jesus rises every day and we rise with Him. More religious mumbo-jumbo? No. Just a different way to live.

I don’t want to stop the glory of Easter. A one day event when the world stops (a bit) for Christians to rest and reflect on the enormity of the sacrifice that God made for us in His Only Son. I want every day to be Easter. We celebrate Easter maybe 70-80 times in our lifetime. I want to celebrate Easter at least 25,550-29,200 times!

How?

Simply by remembering what Easter means. Purpose. Sacrifice. Hope. Glory. And I can think of a lot of other words to describe Easter but I’ll start with those four and how I want to live my life.

Jesus had a God-given purpose in His life. I want to have purpose in my life, not just walking aimlessly through life. I want to understand and realize the special, unique purpose that God has for me.

Jesus sacrificed His life for me. He doesn’t expect me to sacrifice my life (maybe) but He expects me to put others before me. And he commands me to love. Check out John 15:12.

Jesus rising from the death after experiencing a demeaning, terrible death gives hope to the world—and each one of us. I want to live in hope.

If you try, you can feel the glory of God on Easter Sunday. I want to feel that glory each day. It’s easy to get overcome by the darkness in this world. Glory is a bright shining light. There is no darkness in glory.

This may not seem very practical to you; may even seem a little contrived and cute. But it is very practical and real-world to me. You just have to spend a little time thinking about Easter and bringing it into everyday life. Easter Everyday.

Have a GREAT day today! Happy Easter Everyday!

God-less

Sad but true. We are moving forward with less God in our lives. No wonder why this world seems lost and spinning more of of control each day. Less God. That’s really sad!

If you want to see how this plays out, read about Moses and the Israelites in the desert. It took 40 or so years of wondering to travel what should have taken about 11 days. False idols, infighting, and complaining. Sound familiar? The same story that played out thousands of years ago is exactly repeating itself today.

Why? Back then the Israelites turned their backs on God. Fast forward, today we are doing the same thing. Less people in church. More people saying they don’t believe in God and have no “religion.” Lost then. Lost today.

I can tell you that I would be totally lost—maybe even dead—without God in my life. I’m no saint. Far from it. World’s best sinner more like it. But for every step back in the desert I do my best to take 2 steps forward. With God. Everyday with God. Father/Creator, Jesus/Savior, and Spirit/Advocate.

I’m determined not to be lost and wondering in a desert of my life. I’m heading to that Promised Land with God leading the way. Without that, life is truly an endless desert.

Walk forward. Walk with God. Everything becomes clearer in life, especially the path forward. Trust me. Just call out to God to light your way.

Have a glorious, blessed Easter if I don’t sign on before then!

Kindness (What’s That???)

What’s kindness? Good question. There’s little of it in the world today. People are more concerned about focusing on what separates us than what binds us. We may label ourselves black or white, conservative or liberal, or any other silly ways of saying how different we are. With differences basic kindness goes out the door.

Forget the “love” that God commands us to live by (“You shall love the stranger” Deuteronomy 10:19). We can’t even start with a little kindness. No, I’m not Debbie Downer. Just saying it like it is in today’s world.

Here are the facts. God commands us to love. Jesus’ one—as in ONE, 1, uno, un, ein, etc.—command to us on His death bed is LOVE (“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12). God loves us unconditionally. He loves me as much as He loves you. We are all children of God. Totally equal. Without any silly tags. We are all expected to love. If we can’t be kind to each other we certainly can’t love one another.

So, let’s take a baby step and just try to be a little kind (I’m not even saying “kinder”) to each other. Smile. Bite your tongue from saying something mean. Help someone with groceries at the supermarket. Buy someone behind you a cup of coffee. Stop from typing that mean tweet. Be kind.

Call yourself a “Christian?” Think you’re living in the Spirit of God? Here’s the acid test, including kindness.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness. Galatians 5:22 

Enjoy the weekend and… BE KIND!!!

Do You Look Outward or Inward?

There is no better question on how you live your life to ask yourself! I mean, seriously. Of course, 99.9999…% of us look outward. We look at the sex of a person, skin color, our version of “attractiveness,” etc, etc. All outside. But God told Samuel how we should be “looking:”

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

Of course, this makes sense if you stop and think about it for a minute. God created us “in His image” (Genesis 1:27). The “image” of God is not outward—He can’t look anymore like me than He does you or anyone else. God doesn’t have any kind of doppelgänger. God’s “image” is His heart and total, absolute, and unblemished unconditional love.

OK, I’ll stop the gobbledygook and abstractions and bring this down to earth and practical living.

You need to look past the outside of a person, no matter how hard that may be. You have to look “inside” a person, at their “heart.” We can only move closer to God when we start loving like God loves. And the only way to really LOVE a person is how God loves you, me, and every other person past, present, and future. Inside.

Look at the world today. Hatred, violence, abuse, etc. It’s not God(ly) because it’s all about what’s outside people, not what’s inside. The world would be a far, far different place if each one of us even made the attempt to look inside people.

Want to change the world? Start looking “inside” people. Look past the flesh. Like all of life, it’s that very simple. Remember—we complicate life. God intends it to be simple. Change starts one person at a time. Change. Look inside.

Have a GREAT rest of this weekend, wherever you are!!!

Politics & Airplanes

Hate is all around us. The politicians spew it just for the sake of it, regardless of the issue. I just watched yet another incident on an airplane where two passengers were literally duking it out in the aisle. It reminds me of the original Ghostbusters movie where the hate in New York City was feeding the ghosts. Unfortunately, this is real life and it’s not funny. We’re feeding the hate.

God gave us one commandment and that’s to love. Out of love for us, God gave His only Son. And Jesus left us with one simple command: love. It’s bad enough they hung Him on a cross. We continue the hanging every day as we just don’t love, but we actively hate.

I have said this so many times I can’t count, but change happens one person at a time. It starts with you and me. If we don’t start loving, hate will overrun us, as it is right now. You really wonder where all this hate leads.

LOVE!!! It’s not that hard. And it’s truly a key Secret to Life. I’ll try my best to do my part today. I hope you will join me in spreading some love.

Thanks for reading—and loving! 

Help or Helped?

There are people in life who always want to help. There are also people who constantly want to be helped. Then, there are most people who just go about life aimlessly neither helping or being helped. Where do you fall?

Jesus, our role model in life, was constantly helping. He not only healed the sick and propped up the helpless, but also gave hope to all. It was not always easy medicine to take but it always was aimed at helping.

If more of us followed Jesus’ example and were helpers, the world would be a vastly different place. Unfortunately, most of us—and I include myself in that camp a lot of the time—don’t even think enough of others to realize they even need help. We may not ask for any help ourselves but we sure don’t serve up any help to others.

Help or helped? Or nothing? Good question to ask yourself as the week looks ahead.

Have a great day—hopefully, helping someone in need! Start with a smile. That’s all someone may need.

Listen, Read, Love, Fight, Believe, Live & Pray

These are the 7 Secrets to Life I have found. Pretty simple. No, make that really simple.

LISTEN to/for God because He is always there calling you. Yes, you. God has a unique, special purpose for you.

READ the Bible because it is our God-given handbook on life. It’s not some old book. It’s a timely book containing answers—if you want them.

LOVE because God commands us to love, and lead a life of love. That’s pretty simply.

FIGHT the devil because it is around every corner whispering doubt about everything—starting with God—in our ears.

BELIEVE that God is in you because He made you. You can do anything if you just believe and don’t doubt. Reread the last Secret to Life if you doubt any of this.

LIVE this life like it’s only a tune-up for your life of eternity. Where you spend that eternity depends on how you live this life. Back to that love thing!

PRAY because it’s simply conversation with God. It works—if you give it a chance.

These 7 Secrets to Life work for me. They are simple and clear. You may find others but these work for me. I hope they work for you.

Have a GREAT week! 

First or Last?

Good question to ask yourself! What am I talking about?

He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Mark 9:35

That was Jesus asking. Your answer?

Jesus put Himself last because He is first. He gave up His life for you, me, and every other person who has and will live. Jesus is first because He is the Son of God.

If you truly want to get closer to God you need to move to the back of the line. You need to be last to be first.

OK. What does this practically mean today and tomorrow. You need to think more about others than yourself. It’s that simple. But the thinking part has to play out in actual actions. Jesus healed, put Himself in harms way, and eventually gave up HIs life. We don’t have to go to those extremes. We can walk before we run.

Help someone. Anyhow. A lot of people out there need a lot of help. Give. Anything. Just do something for someone before you do for yourself.

Enjoy the rest of this weekend!

Perfect or Sinner?

In my case this is an easy answer. Sinner. I’m pretty good at being a sinner and pretty bad at being perfect. But that’s life. We are imperfect children of a perfect God.

I think one of the keys to life is acknowledging that you are imperfect—a sinner—but constantly trying to strive for perfection. To repent and not try to sin again. Unfortunately, there are too many people out there who believe that they are perfect in every way.

Perfect or Sinner? Pharisee or Tax Collector? What/who are you? Did I lose you? Read Luke 18:9-14 to answer the question. It’s one of the absolute best Bible verses on living life.

And remember: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)

Have a wonderful day!!!